After a few minutes, they wiped their faces and sat side by side on the sofa, holding hands. Carter moved over to one of the chairs to give them more room.
“Charlotte, please tell me this nonsense between us has ended.”
“Yes, Mama, I missed you so much.” She laid her head on her mother’s shoulder as she’d done so many times as a young girl.
“As I missed you.”
Mr. Monroe looked over at Mama. “My dear, why don’t you tell them about tomorrow evening?”
Mama clapped her hands like a young girl and Lottie sat up. “Oh, yes. Lord and Lady Huntingdon have invited the four of us to dinner tomorrow night as a celebration of your wedding and our engagement.”
Lottie didn’t think she could take any more surprises. Her mother-in-law was breaking every rule of the ton by accepting a courtesan into her home. To sit at her dining room table.
“Your mother is a remarkable woman,” Mama said to Carter.
“As are you, as well,” Carter replied.
The two couples chatted for hours, catching up on what Lottie had been doing in Bath. Lottie still had a few more questions for her mother, but once the evening grew to an end, she felt as though she knew everything she needed to know.
Most of which was how much her mother loved her and all the decisions she’d made had been to provide a better life for Lottie.
Lottie and Carter left for their house in London after a lovely dinner with Mama and Mr. Monroe, who Lottie found to be a wonderful gentleman. A shipping line owner, Mr. Monroe was charming, humorous, and very much in love with her mother.
He told them at dinner that he was selling his business so he and Mama could travel. Then they would buy a house and enjoy the rest of their lives. Lottie immediately mentioned all the wonderful houses in Bath. They all laughed.
As they were undressing for bed, Carter suddenly burst out laughing.
“What?”
“It just occurred to me. You’ve been thinking you’re not good enough for me because of your background.”
“Yes?”
He sat alongside her on the bed while she untied the ribbons holding up her stockings. “Legally, I am not a bastard, but in reality, I am because my parents were not married to each other. You, on the other hand, are perfectly legitimate.”
Lottie turned and stared at him, her mouth agape. “You are correct. How odd.”
“Odd, but funny.” He pulled her down onto the bed where he kissed her, and she kissed him back with all the love in her heart.
Epilogue
Four months later
“Mama, I’m fine. I still have another few months before the babe arrives. You and Carter are driving me crazy.” Lottie shifted on the sofa and attempted to rise but fell back.
Her mother fluttered around her like a bird. “See. You should be resting more.”
“Resting from what? All I do is eat and rest.” The child she was carrying would be huge when it finally arrived. He would probably come out walking and demanding meat pies.
“Is she giving you problems again, Alice?” Mr. Monroe, who had been asking Lottie to call him Papa since the day he and her mother married, entered the drawing room with Carter right behind him. He leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek.
Lottie had grown to love her stepfather over the past few months but still wasn’t quite ready to call him Papa. Since she’d never had a father, the word just stuck on her tongue. So, she did what anyone else would be in that situation. She waited until he looked at her before she asked him anything.
Her mother and her new husband had moved to a lovely house only a few blocks from them in Bath once they had returned from their wedding trip. The new Mrs. Monroe joined Lottie and Carter’s church, and no one seemed to know—or care—who she had been in London. She had a feeling that Carter and his persuasive abilities had something to do with that.
“Yes, she won’t sit still,” Mama said as Mr. Monroe joined her on the sofa.
Carter sat on the arm of the chair and took Lottie’s hand. “Feeling a bit restless, are you?”
To her horror she burst into tears. “I feel so fat, so unwieldly.” She took the handkerchief that Carter placed into her hand. He always seemed to have more than one on his person all the time.
“Why don’t we send for tea?” Her stepfather said.
Lottie cried harder. “Then I’ll be even fatter than I am now.”
Carter stood and took Lottie’s hand. “Up you go, sweetheart. Time for a nap.” He walked her out of the room, rubbing her back as she lumbered alongside him.
Once her husband had her settled in bed, he sat next to her. “Has there been any news from Pamela?”
Lottie shook her head. “No. Not since her visit here last week.” She sniffed and wiped her nose. “I am concerned about her.”
The week before, Pamela had shown up one evening in a very agitated state. She told Lottie that she had some difficulty that only one person could help her with, and she would be unable to visit with her or Addie for a while until it was resolved.
With no more information than that, Pamela had kissed her on the cheek and told her she hoped to be back when the baby was born.
Neither she nor Addie had heard anything from her since.
“Do you suppose there is more than one baby in here?” Lottie asked.
Carter turned quite pale. “You mean twins?”
“Yes.” Lottie rested her hand on her stomach and said, “A few times I swear I felt the baby kick in two different places.”
“Well the child has two feet.”
“However, unless your son has four feet, I keep thinking there is more than one.”
Carter stood walked to the window and drew the drapes. “Don’t worry about that now. Just take a nice nap and you’ll feel better about everything when you wake up.”
He kissed her on the head and moved to the door. Just as his hand touched the latch, she said, “Four feet. I’m sure of it.”
The End
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I hope you had fun reading Lottie and Carter’s love story. Coming next in The Misfits of Bath series: Lady Pamela and the Gambler.
Miss Adeline Mallory, who has suffered from dyslexia her whole life convinces her parents that marriage is simply not in her future and to release her dowry to her so she can open a bookstore.
Miss Charlotte Danvers escapes the reputation her mother built as the most expensive courtesan in London and supports herself by teaching young ladies all the finer points of the ton who will never accept her as one of their own.
Lady Pamela Manning cannot get through an entire sentence without stuttering. But she sings like an angel. She’s happy with her new life as a music teacher, even if most of her students have no ear for music.
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About the Author
Callie Hutton, the USA Today bestselling author of The Elusive Wife, writes both Western Historical and Regency romance, with “historic elements and sensory details” (The Romance Reviews). She also pens an occasional contemporary or two. Callie lives in Oklahoma with several rescue dogs and her top cheerleader husband of many years. Her family also includes her daughter, son, daughter-in-law and twin grandsons affectionately known as “The Twinadoes.”
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Callie Hutton has written more than thirty books. For a complete listing, go to www.calliehutton.com/books
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A Wife by Christmas
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The Elusive Wife
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A Run for Love
“An exciting, heart-warming Western love story!" --NY Times bestselling author Georgina Gentry
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A Prescription for Love
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An Angel in the Mail
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition December 2019
The Courtesan’s Daughter and the Gentleman: The Merry Misfits of Bath ~ Book Two Page 15
